Finding Comfort in Our Own Community

Northview-ElementaryLast Friday, December 14, Northview Elementary celebrated its Blue Ribbon School certification. All the classrooms were open with smiling teachers standing the doorways to greet us as we walked the halls. In the gym there was cake and some nifty science displays assembled by young brilliant minds; the school choir performed a few holiday songs, and the library hosted a book fair full of stories of adventures, spooky places and sports heroes. A photographer set up shop in one of the classrooms where families could pose for a picture to commemorate the moment.

No one needed to mention the pall that hung over the school. It was obvious the instant you walked through the front door where an armed Valparaiso police officer stood prominent in the lobby.

I have thoroughly enjoyed every minute of every day of every year of my kids’ elementary school experience. The fun fairs, the Laps for Learning, the talent shows, the field days and the field trips, scouts, choir, student council, the excitement of the first days and the anticipation of summer breaks. We’ve loved every teacher the kids have had – even the ones where parents with older kids warned us about the loads of homework. We’ve come to know many of the families of the kids with whom our children progressed through the years. Several have become good friends. Even the lice scares, the whooping cough outbreaks and the “special talk” notices can be looked back on with eye rolls and chuckles now.

Friday night, principal Loren Hershberger made a few remarks before the choir took the stage. He thanked his terrific staff, lauded the hard work of the students, and commended the parents for all teaming together to build a strong Northview community. And I guess more than anything, that’s what I’ve loved about our elementary experience – the sense of community. Our son’s years in the school overlapped a bit of a transition; the prior principal retired, and a couple of longtime teachers left. In both first and sixth grades he had brand new teachers, fresh out of college. It’s been great to watch them develop and settle in over the years as our daughter – four years his junior – followed his path, having those now-seasoned teachers too. It’s always nice to see them at school events, as it is all of the other teachers and staff who have become so familiar.

A sense of community. Of comfort. Of predictability.

Friday night as the choir performed on the gym stage I’m sure I wasn’t the only whose thoughts drifted eastward.

What if.

God, it’s too terrible to even think about, let alone live it.

As our daughter begins the last half of her last year in elementary school – the last of the “innocent years” – I suppose the best we can do is to honor the memory of those lost and traumatized by shoring up our community even more. To find another way to volunteer, to say thanks to a teacher, to spend a couple of extra minutes on a homework assignment, to not get frustrated with selling giftwrap or Girl Scout cookies. To understand the “push button to speak” sign at the front door that is part of the security system, and the seemingly big to-do of people with walkie-talkies directing cars and buses before and after school.

Maybe someday the sense of comfort, of predictability, will return to Sandy Hook Elementary. Maybe never. A strong elementary community is a special thing. But its strength is also its fragility.

What if. “I couldn’t imagine if…”

So let’s not. Let’s focus on what we have, how we can further support it, insulate it, grow it, nurture it, protect it, honor it, enjoy it, remember it, reward it, advocate for it, improve it, embrace it. As we search for answers and logic where there is none about the tragedy in Newtown, we can at least find comfort in our own community. It’s not selfish. It’s not ignoring what happened. It’s a rally for innocence.